Dauber

Camille Bombois had been a wrestler in sideshows. When he quit the muscle business to become a printer's helper, he took up painting as a hobby. Years later his bright, primitive paintings began to attract some mild attention in the Paris art world (TIME, Oct. 27, 1947). Most of his primitive-style pictures were laboriously modeled from photographs. But he peddled enough of them on street corners to give up his printing job and paint fulltime.

In London last week, at an exhibition of French primitives, Bombois' pictures were getting most of the attention. He had sent a portrait, robust circus scenes, romantic riverscapes. His most talked-about painting was Utrillo Kissing His Prayer Book, which shows the famed painter in a white coat, clutching a black prayer book as he faces a wooden crucifix; in the background is a black, star-speckled sky. Most British critics had pleasant things to say about burly old (69) Bombois and his innocent simplicity. Art News & Review. "Bombois is the hero of this exhibition . . . [Utrillo] is an extraordinary piece of work, an uncomfortable tribute to the founder of topographical primitivism."

Of his twelve paintings on show, two were already sold (Utrillo went for -L-900). Back in Paris, Camille Bombois was pleased but puzzled. Said he: "After all, I am just a barbouilleur [dauber], and there are lots of artists who paint better than I do . . ." One who heartily agreed with him was Painter Maurice Utrillo's peppery wife, Lucie Valore, who had seen Bombois' painting of her husband in a Paris gallery and sent Bombois an indignant protest: "The expression on Utrillo's face is too demoniacal, and you have painted his nose much too red . . ."

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